Movie : Cabin in the woods ( 2012 )

Genre : Sci-fi | Thriller | Horror

Our Rating : 7/10


Cabin in the woods directed by Drew Goddard is a Sci fi thriller with a different touch. Plot is same old routine story where five friends ( Dana , Curt , Jules , Marty and Holden ) travel to a isolated land in a forest few miles drive from the city to spend their summer in Curt's Cousin owned Cabin without even realizing the horrific events which are gonna come by next. They party , the drink and they have fun and things go smoothly until they discover a basement filled with so many artifacts and strange things , pictures of human sacrifices dumped in there. They are terrified after visiting the basement and they have found a diary written by some girl in 90's with Latin inscription. , Though Marty refuse his friend not to read the Latin phrases , they continue to read the diary only to realize that they have woke up Zombies beneath the earth just like in Evil Dead. Then we know its same old fashioned kill , zombies break-into house and start killing one by one.

With all these events happening simultaneously , director gives a twist that everything whatever is happening been covered live as a reality show by group of scientists who are continuously monitoring these five people from many thousand feet below the cabin just like in Resident evil. They control everything happening in the woods and the cabin. They have hundreds of employees working there were each taking care of specific functions like Chemical department , maintenance department etc.. !! We might say wow..whats going on in there. Is this some joke going around and why would people love to watch the people in cabin being killed and you would feel as if you are watching Hostel movie. There is no way out of that place as all the entrance to the land been trapped and sealed by the scientist who are working below. Things would go confusing and only Marty , Dana alone survive these attempts. Director gives another big twist that the killings need to be real and the scientist who work there are no psychopaths rather they want to give a ritual sacrifice of Five young people to keep the Dark matter and ancient evil gods to keep them below the earth. These sacrifice are seems must to keep them under and protect the earth from them. Dana and marthy while trying to escape from the zombies find way to a graveyard which is connected to a lift which travels deep down the earth to the place where the scientists work and manage the system above. As no way around the woods to escape , they decide to travel in the same lift in which zombies are been sent to the surface to kill them. While they travel , they discover that its not just Zombies , they have so many other evil spirits , ghosts , killers , ware-wolfs etc etc looked down below in different chambers and that they themselves unknowingly made their own choise on how they should die when they choose to read the zombie diary instead of other things lying on the basement.

Scientists track them on their monitoring camera and they send a army of security guards to get them alive. Dana and Marthy somehow found their way out of that lift , but to see themselves been surrounded by armed guards . As no where to go , they hide up inside a Bullet proof control room nearby , which the guards notice and start to fire at the control room. Dana turns off all the switches in the control room to unlock all the dark elements and evil spirits out of their locked chambers. Things gets totally messed up when these locked up creatures start killing up the guards and its total blood bath gruesome violence and killing from then on. From the control room , they both travel further down in a safe passage which leads them to a secret chamber with ancient drawings on the walls. That is when they realize they are chosen one and that they are needed to complete the ritual as it needs a whore , a athlete , a scholar , a fool and a virgin. Three are already dead and only the fool ( Marthy ) and Virgin ( Dana ) are still alive. The killing should be in a correct sequence and that the fool needs to be scarified before the virgin death . If this doesn't happen correctly , the ritual will remain incomplete. They killings should happen before sun rise which is just going to be in another 8 minutes. Marthy and dana decide to kill themselves at one point for the sake of humanity but later they drop the idea just so to give equal chance to all humanity to share the pain and suffering as they made them to go through all this . Its now Sun rise and earth shatters , the underground structure collapses and something very big with a gaint hand pops out of the center of earth and director ends the closing shot there..

Drew goddard did a perfect job and he devised the script very well at-least for the first half. Initial thirty minutes were really chilling and you would think as if expecting some alien movie out of it. But instead we are let down and all we see is yet another zombie movie .The later part is filled with ware-wolf ,zombies and all other creatures in recent horror films coming live and killing the people beneath the earth. At first it may look creepy but later you would laugh it out as its nor more trilling and horrifying. Picturization was cool with some nice closeup shots and CG works at some places were excellent. But screenplay is a real let down atleast at the later half. Saying that its never a bad attempt from the director and it can be definitely be watched once , unless if you are not a zombie liker.

FAM Punch Line : Same routine movie with five friends in woods and zombies killing spree . Expected more , Outcome is less. But that said its a decent thriller movie released in recent time , which definitely deserves a one time watch

Movie : The Song of Sparrows ( 2008 ) Iranian

Genre : Classic | Drama

Director :  Majid Majidi ( Director of Children of Heaven and the willow tree )

Our rating : 9.5 /10

The Song of sparrows is just so amazing movie depicting journey of One man's life and is beautifully crafted scene by scene. Script is not so complicated and plot is so imple portraying a common man

life , people surrounding him and problems he goes through in his personal life. Movie is about Karim who works as a Care taker at a Ostrich Farm. Karim lives with his wife , two  daughters and a young son in a small house on a village near tehran. One fine day , a ostrich escapes from the farm , despite several attempts he couldn't get the ostrich back and is lost for ever. Being responsible for this incident , his boss fires him from the job , dejected returns back to his family as a lost soul. One fine morning , karim decides to travel in his old bike to the Tehran city  for repairing his elder daughter Hearing aid. While in Tehran , people mistake him as a ferry ride motorcycle taxi driver decide to request karim for a drop in his bike. Karim later realizes that this is a good earning job ferrying people around the city .Taking this opportunity in hand ,  he starts to gain handful of money. During one of his day in Tehran he happens to come across a building site during one of his drop and see's lot of trashes and iron goods been thrown at the backyard. Karim decides to take some from the junkyard everyday like old antenna's , window frames , doors etc to his home when he returns back to his village in evening. The village he lives in has only few countable house here and there survived by karim's relatives. They share and they stay together as one large family though they live apart in separate house.

In meantime his young son along with children's in the area decide to cleanup a abandoned  sludge-filled water storage and refill with good water for starting up a fish farm.The children part in this feature film is so touching , real and cool. They add more freshness to the movie and their attempt to start the fish farm regardless of many hurdles they face is pure class. Karim starts to earn more money then he got while working in ostrich farm. How a common man life slowly changes when he starts seeing some money in his pocket and how his attitude towards his life as a honest man changes slowly  is clearly shown as movie progresses . He starts to quarrel with children's , he doesn't share anymore goodness with his neighbors , he looses temper and he is no more of how he was before.

Karim later meets up with accident while cleaning up his house and happen to broke his leg during this incident. He goes bed rest and he can no more move anywhere or go to work. So he stays full time in his house. That is when he realizes the love his wife 'n' children's  have on him and the care the neighbors 'n' relatives took  when he became immobile . Now karim repents himself for
everything he made others go through and his heart slowly gets purified. And end of the movie , one of his peers inform him that the ostrich which ran away came back herself to the farm. Karim is so relieved and he now feels a fresh air going through his lungs.He takes a deep breath with a big relief..There were so many stunning scene's in the movie , be it while the children's losing balance drop the tub containing fishes on the pavement and how they wipe the fishes to the nearby roadside water-flow canal seeing the fishes fighting for their life is a heart touching tear dropping scene and also when Karim wakes one morning to see a sparrow inside his house trying to escape out of the house which is completely sealed. Despite of his broken leg karim crawls to the door , opens it with great struggle to see the sparrow flinging away to the nearby tree's . It gives a great sigh of relief to karim sparing a bird and giving her a much needed freedom. The movie ends with a scene where karim with his broken leg , rides his bike back to the ostrich farm to see them and he emotionally connects with the birds in there.

Such a simple narration of the script subject to so many realistic scene's happen in a normal man's life ,especially the father son combo was so lovable , elegantly done and mind blowing .The Background score was simply the best and soothing to ears. You would definitely be lost in such a beautifully screen-played movie and you will never knew its 90 minutes over and that you are there almost at end of the film. Wish the movie had additional one hour of play showing the children's starting up the fish farm successfully , his daughter get back her hearing aid and karim gets back his old job in ostrich farm. But directors leave us guessing and is compelling , self explanatory as movie is not so complicated. The location were film was shot  was awesome and hats off to the cinematography work brilliantly done , a definite virtual treat to the audience . Very few directors can show the movies in a realistic way stands unique with its screenplay. In that regards Director majid has done exceptionally well. Its definitely a mesmerizing movie one should ever miss watching it.

FAM Punch Line :  Iranian movies always sets a high standard to this film world where they prove every-time that its not the cast or the advanced film elements like CG works that matters , but rather a good script in a hands of good director can bring a lot . This movie will definitely be the one and  will serve you as a inspiration to watch other iranian movies. Have Fun watching

Movie : Dersu Uzala (1975) Russian

Genre : Adventure | Drama

Director : Akira Kurosawa

Our rating : 9.5/10

Dersu Uzala is definitely a Perfect Adventure Classic Movie well sculpted by the master hands Akira Kurosawa and stands out one of Epic movie of all time. Movie plot is about a Russian Explorer Arseniev who along with few crew members been sent to Siberian desert ( 1902 ) by Russion military for a surveying expedition on areas around the place near to Lake Kansha. Its one of the toughest terrain in the area and he or crew knew very little about it. There he comes across a strange short looking homeless Orphaned Goldi tribe hunter who is none other then Dersu Uzala. The captain and the crew provide Dersu shelter and food for that night and the next day dersu decides to guide them for their expedition and decides to travel along with the crew. Derzu knows in and out of the terrain and he hows how to read nature , predict things correctly and decide on the route they should take. Initially the crew look Dersu as a Funny human being but later they start to realize how great he is as a person with a good soul and as a excellent hunter. In many occasion Dersu had saved Arseneiv from the clutches of death. For dersu , helping one another is must to live in a forest but for Arseniev , derszu's life saying hand had a deep impact on him and he gets emotionally attached to his friend Dersu. They travel through tough situation , in different climate conditions with nature's angry face against them be it Ice , Water , Air , Fire or the animals in the forest , they surpass them with the guidance of Dersu. Then along the end of expedition , arseniev invites Dersu to travel with him to the city and to stay with him for ever. But as a man of forest and child of nature he doesn't wanna leave the forest and with a saddened heart ,they part their ways and dersu continuous his hunting journey and Arseniev bids farewell to his friend .

Many years pass by and its 1907 Arseniev takes up another Surveying adventure with a new crew. He moves through the forest every day expecting to meet his Old friend Derzsu and finally he does. The scenes gets too touchy as if you are meeting up a childhood friends after many long years. They share drinks , they sing along and the duo friends decide to travel along on this new adventure. It was all good for Arseniev as if he got his life back with his close friend near by , but things take a wild turn when Dersu partially looses his eye sight and that he is no more capable of Hunting and surfing , guiding the crew through the forest. Dersu is totally shattered and broken for he cannot no more live a life of a hunter and his life been paused. Arseniev decides to take Dersu to his home this time no matter what.

Then few months go by and derzu is now in a city where there is no more Hills or terrain to navigate through , where human souls are self arrested within a four walls covered wooden box called house , where rifle shooting is banned and constructing tents outdoor is banned , where people live by rules and where Fire wood and water doesn't come for free . Dersu is not comfortable for this city life and he is not accustomed to it. He wants to be in a place where there is no rules , nothing money could buy and where one can life alife of their own. So begs his close friend to send him back to the same forest. Arseniev understanding his friend feeling decides to send him back. He gifts a new model costly rifle to Dersu thinking it can be useful for hunting.Few days pass by and Arseniev gets a telegram that a unidentified body of a goldi tribe found near forest and that he had arseniev visiting card in his pocket and to help police identify the body. Arseniev doesn't waste any time and travels to the place. He sees the undertaker digging the burial hole and that the dead body face is covered with a cloth. Arseniev was not able to remove the cloth to see the face where he couldn't see his friend Dersu lying there breathless. Later police help to remove the cover and that's it , its all silence for few minutes and arseniev expression would talk the scene with no dialogues further. . Later he comes to know that the someone had killed him for the valuable rifle dersu was holding.He is broken and depressed one being loosing his close friend and second for being a cause of his death indirectly and movies closes up with a sad touching note . Its no surprise AK had you there with tears in your eye which even you wouldn't have realized.You would be so involved that it would take few minutes for the audience to realize that Dersu is a movie character and that you are not Arseniev.

Akira Kurosawa has done wonders in this film. He had brought the essence of pure acting from his cast and crew. He also played a naturalist and a environmentalist , while walking through the film he does pinpoint many areas of current issues like deforestation , killing of animals for skins etc packed as a movie with strong message to the people... A definite pure class movie portraying a sentimental bond between two friends and a true adventure movie makes you feel as if you are traveling along with them This movie would be definite virtual treat with those brilliant tracking shots and landscape views on different climatic conditions.. From fine wide angle landscapes to brilliant use of light, colors and shades this movie cinematography is top notch. Dersu as a simple kind calm man , would touch our hearts and will def decomes a unforgettable character far this will sustain as one of my best characters came across in movie world. A must watch for film freaks especially for those who love adventure films


FAM Quote : Man is very small before the face of nature amd friendship is more than words. Watch this movie and feel the magic. Be a part of it.

 Movie : Naan ( 2012 )

Genre : Thriller | Crime

Our Rating : 7.5/10